Resistive switching characteristics of MIM structures based on oxygen-variable ultra-thin HfO2 and fabricated at low temperature

We report the resistive switching characteristics of Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures fabricated at low temperature and having different concentrations of oxygen vacancies in the insulator. The oxygen modulation in HfO2 is promoted by a very simple variation of standard thermal Atomic-Layer Deposition (ALD), so that different exposure times to H2O during each half-cycle of the hafnium oxide deposition are used (being Tetrakis Dimethylamino Hafnium-TDMAH the other precursor). We show the correlation of the stoichiometry with the forming voltage, conduction mechanisms and resistance windows of memory devices. All structures present a bipolar operation mode in which the resistive switching mechanism is related to the migration of oxygen vacancies inside the dielectric. These MIM devices have a simple structure, low power consumption and they are fabricated using a very low thermal budget of only 250 °C, thus enabling their integration at the Back-End of Line (BEOL) stage of an integrated circuit in order to increase the density of memory arrays in at least one order of magnitude.